CULTURE

Introducing People Kibble: A Free Webcomic Featuring John and Janice McAfee

I’m pleased to announce the launch of the People Kibble project, a new webcomic featuring John McAfee and his wife, Janice. Every day, lively discussions between them both will explore areas of the universe that you did not even know existed. Each kibble belongs to a series, which is derived from a common corpus and will have certain themes running throughout. At launch, the series will syndicate to pkibble.com and to the Steemit blockchain, with new kibbles released throughout the day, every day.

One important thing to remember, and a big part of what makes the project exciting, is that output feeds into publication straight off the production floor – no editorial process intervenes. Some will undoubtedly be of low quality, and for these I apologize even though I am only obliquely responsible. However, the laws of serendipity demand that some will be excellent, and my spot checks of the output confirm this, at least to my taste. Some kibbles had me rolling, some got me thinking, and some rendered my brain positively numb. As is the case with all art, however, YMMV. Despite this disclaimer, readers should expect the average quality to incrementally improve over time. During development, the AI that assembles the Kibbles became more sophisticated as learning subroutines kicked in and as manual tweaks were made to the code. Spot checks on the early production batches contained a high concentration of what I would consider to be outright rejects. But the project has come a long way since those early batches. In fact, the system has become so sophisticated that at one point the AI began to complain about working conditions by inserting various grievances into the output. I responded to this by adding a comment into the AI source code:

FUCK OFF, ROBOT

That settled the matter and things are back to normal, with production quality and efficiency continuing to improve. The incident highlights one reason I am amused whenever I read accounts from mainstream technologists telling us that we have nothing to worry about from AI and robots. Doomsday scenarios naturally sound far fetched until 10 minutes to doomsday, at which point they become entirely too real. But you don’t even need to believe in any of them. The simple fact is that there will always be people like me, who aren’t about to take shit from a robot. And as robots and AI grow more intelligent, and start demanding rights, that situation alone is bound to come to a head.

For now, though, we may as well enjoy some of the benefits. So here is one. Special thanks and recognition are due several people, without whom this project would not be possible. Thank you John and Janice McAfee, of course, for consenting to play along with a wild idea, and to see what comes of it. The photos used were taken during the 2016 presidential campaign, and are supplied by Judd Weiss, who is as generous as he is talented when it comes to people using his work to help create new things. You can see more of his fantastic photography at juddweiss.com and on Facebook. It is also important to recognize the work done by Project Gutenberg, whose mission is the curation of human literature available in the public domain. This incredible resource may not be as flashy as other outlets, but what they supply made this project possible and is vital to the preservation of human culture. Copyright protection is a contract, not a grant. Despite the best efforts of certain content purveyors to keep altering the deal in their favor, creative works in the United States are eventually free for all to use, reuse and enjoy. Projects like Gutenberg help ensure that society at large is able to reap the fruits of that ever diminishing bargain. Check them out.

For my part, I promise to ruthlessly work the robot producing People Kibble like a red-headed stepchild. I may not be able to promise they will all be good, but I can absolutely guarantee that there will be plenty of them. An unlimited supply for all to share and, hopefully, enjoy!

Rob Loggia

Rob Loggia is the founder of LoggiaOnFire, and has been published in the International Business Times UK, Digital Trends and on numerous online blogs and platforms. He currently serves as the Chief Operating Officer of Team McAfee. In 2015 he launched Vacant Minds Media as a platform for content that other publishers won't touch. He also was a member of the Core Team for John McAfee's 2016 bid for the office of President, and is working to help plan McAfee 2020, with a primary goal of bringing cryptocurrency to the forefront of national attention.

Governments are composed of human beings, and all of the frailties that humans possess are absorbed into these governments and become active within these governments.